Hauptmann Michael von Taaffe walked into the duty room to assign the day’s missions. He looked around. There were just seven aircrew of the Flik and observation detachment fit and able to fly. Six were recuperating from injuries.
“Gentlemen, here are your orders. Herren von Taaffe [Ryan, cousin to the Hauptman] and Milos Kafka will intercept enemy bombers that having been much trouble of late. For the rest of you, it seems that there is a second enemy tunnel near Monte Grappe that headquarters wishes shut down; and since you did such a splendid job on the other tunnel, they’ve ‘suggested’ that we bomb this one. Unfortunately we are short of aircraft as the experimental Ufag had to be returned for modifications which means that the bomber crews [the German crew of Ltn Wilhelm Lange and Fw Friedrich Steinbrecher and the AH crew of Ltn Eduard Kuhn and Fw Heinrich Fraenkel] will have the fly the Rolands”.

Noticing the shocked look on the faces of the crewmen of the observation detachment, Michael continued, “Your escort will be Herr von Augustin. It’s true he needs more gunnery practice and experience with unjamming the Schwarlose but he’s our best flyer and our only ace. The reports from the front are that the skies are clear so you shouldn’t need to get in range of defending machine guns. I can’t do better than that for you. Those are your orders. Good day, Gentlemen.”

The Hauptmann turned and left the room and was followed shortly by Ryan and Milos, leaving the ‘bombing assignment’ crew in stunned silence. They had had a series of rough missions around Monte Grappe and now they had another. Wilhelm, who would be the leader for the mission, spoke first, “I suggest we fly in at a high altitude, drop our bombs and get the hell out of there. It seems that success only results in more bad missions. Maybe we leave this one to chance.” The others nodded in agreement and headed for their planes.

As Wolfgang approached his Oeffag 153, the mechanic looked up and said, “Sir, your engine needs work. It won’t be ready for today’s mission. However, the German jasta has agreed to lend you one of their Albatros DV aircraft.”

“Can I have the Spandaus replaced by my Schwarlose?” Wolfgang enquired. Despite the Hauptmann’s criticism and the natural, aristocractic aversion to getting one’s hands greasing Wolfgang had been working hard at understanding the workings of the Schwarlose.

“Nein, Herr Leutnant.”

Wolfgang sighed and thought, “I suppose I will never live down that accidental collision with the Italian.” The Albatros was not so dissimilar to his Oeffag but it couldn’t match the Oeffag’s climbing ability, which Wolfgang had been using to good effect. [Climb rate of 3 versus 2.]

“There’s more bad news,” the mechanic continued. The Spandau on one of the Roland’s is malfunctioning. It will only have the Parabellum [i.e., rear firing MG only].”

‘This is going well,” Wilhelm said to no one in particular.

A short time later the Albatros and two Rolands neared Monte Grappe to be greeted by a wall of clouds over the target area.

“God in Heaven,” muttered Wilhelm when he saw the clouds. “Is this what passes for clear skies these days?” They would now have to go under the clouds and from the looks of it the would be very low to the ground. Not only would they be in danger from every Italian machine gun in the area they would even be at risk from their own bombs – and how would they find their target? Just then Wilhelm saw the telltale smoke of a train from a break in the clouds off to the right. It would be heading for the tunnel. If they headed to point roughly along the line the train was heading, banked left and dived under the clouds at the last second they just might get out of there alive. Wilhelm tapped Friedrich on the shoulder and pointed to the train and signalled with his hand to where he wanted Friedrich to fly. Friedrich banked right in the direction Wilhelm indicated.

Wolfgang had seen the clouds but that wouldn’t preclude enemy scouts. He scanned the skies and noticed two flying a race track ahead and to the left. “I guess the tunnel entrance would be just below those two”, he thought. Just below one of the enemy scouts there was a large gap in the clouds. Maybe they’d have a break in their bad luck. We waggled his wings and point to the enemy scouts and to the large gap in the clouds. Wilhelm nodded.

Despite it being a little dated, Captain Charles Kingsley loved flying the Sopwith Pup. His wingman, the Tennessean, 2nd Lieutenant Sam Magee was flying one of the latest planes, an RAF SE5a. The two of them were on a routine patrol protecting an important tunnel entrance which was heavily protected by machine guns and Archie. “Let’s hope they can distinguish friend from foe”, he thought as he and Sam flew their race track route. With the clouds that rolled in and obscured the tunnel it would likely be a boring mission. Then Charles noticed Sam waggling his wings. Three black specks where headed in their direction – likely two bombers and an escort. Charles banked his plane to the left and headed towards the specks along with Sam.

As they neared the enemy planes, Charles and Sam could see that two were Rolands – what were they thinking send up people in those crates? The other was an escorting Albatros. They should easily be able to handle this lot. Charles headed straight for the Rolands while Sam with the superior speed of the SE5a flew ahead to the right to come in on the flank of the Rolands. Wolfgang anticipated the Tennessean’s move got a good burst off at the American’s plane.

However, it was a momentary chance as the SE5a flew on past the Albatros. The Rolands were startled by the Sam’s aggressive attack and got to poorly aimed shots off at the SE5a. Sam ignored the fire from the enemy planes and focussed in on the rear Roland. Coming in close and above the Roland. A hail of bullets from the Vickers and Lewis found a vital point and Roland exploded. Meanwhile Wolgang dodged the enemy flank. [Note in the photo the Pup and Roland can’t fire as the bases overlap.]

As the Pup and the SE5a flew past both Wilhelm and Wolfgang managed to return fire despite being stunned by the loss of the comrades. A few bits of fabric flew off the Pup – nothing vital as hit.

They were near the line along which Wilhelm thought the train was heading. He looked left and saw that the large gap was now right over the tunnel. “Thank God! Some luck at last,” he thought. He signalled to Friedrich to head for the tunnel, Maybe they’d get their bombs off and dive into the clouds before the enemy scouts could turn around. An enemy shell exploded nearby but Wilhelm concentrated on the job at hand. Judging his timing, he hit the bomb release.

A direct hit. Wilhelm noticed the train just coming out of the under the cloud cover. To bad it wasn’t closer to the tunnel so it could have been hit as well, but at least that locomotive won’t have a happy time stopping. Time to find some cloud cover. He tapped on Friedrich’s shoulder for him to dive into the nearest clouds but he needn’t have bothered as the Roland was already descending into the clouds.

Wolfgang should have followed the Roland but he was red hot with anger from the loss of the Eduard and Heinrich. “They must pay for this”, he shouted at the skies and flew at the nearest enemy which just happened to be the SE5a that had shot down the Roland. Sam had expected the Albatros to follow the Roland into the clouds was surprised when the Albatros turned in his direction. “Usually they scuttled for home as fast as possible,” he thought.

Wolfgang dogged the American continually firing until the bullets stopped. Jammed! He turned away from the SE5a to deal with the Spandau guns.

Wolfgang had been climbing since he had first noticed the enemy planes. With an Immelmann he now had the height advantage over Sam. Heading directly at the SE5a – no fancy stuff – man to man shooting. Sam’s bullets missed while Wolfgang’s found more fabric, but the Spandau seized again. “Damnation!”

[Suddenly a gust of wind blew some of the clouds away – i.e., I got tired of moving the stuff around. Don’t worry the clouds are there – just off camera. ] Another Immelmann and Wolfgang found the Pup below him and in his crosshairs. Another burst – and no jammed guns!

The Pup was a good climber and Charles was now at the same level as the Albatros but he could not shake Wolfgang. The bullets from the Spandau hit an oil line and fire burst from the Pup. The Pup couldn’t take a lot of damage. Charles would be lucky to make it home. He dove into the nearly clouds to escape Wolfgang. Sam saw Charles depart. His SE5a had taken quite a bit of damage and as far as he could tell they’d done nothing to that devilish Albatros. Sam followed Charles into the clouds. Wolfgang pounded his Spandau in frustration but the guns stubbornly had decided enough was enough. His rage cooled Wolfgang finally agreed. The Sopwith probably wouldn’t make it home and the SE5a had taken enough damage so that the American would know he had been in a fight.

Once in the clouds Charles put the Pup into an over dive hoping that this would put the flames out. The flames flickered and went out.

A short time later he landed his badly damaged Sopwith. Sam was just behind him. Charles could see that the SE5a had had a time of it too. Luckily neither of them was hurt. Sam descended from the cockpit. “What in tarnation was that?” he exclaimed wide eyed.

Nice effort using clouds. I considered it, but could not face moving all of that every phase while maintaining the opening.
Then I thought I might just add partially transparent effects to the photos, but decided against that as well.

Yours looks really good and definitely adds to the overall effect.
Tough break for the Roland crew. I was lucky with mine - it was the Brit leader that will sit out the rest of the campaign.

Nice effort using clouds. I considered it, but could not face moving all of that every phase while maintaining the opening.
Then I thought I might just add partially transparent effects to the photos, but decided against that as well.

Yours looks really good and definitely adds to the overall effect.
Tough break for the Roland crew. I was lucky with mine - it was the Brit leader that will sit out the rest of the campaign.

Rep coming (if it can find its way through the cloud cover)

Moving the clouds was okay - he says noting the last few photos without the stuff. I wasn’t going to go all out but had decided to use the cotton stuff for the gap oval. Thought that look weird and went all out with the tons of batten I have for Xmas decorations. The biggest challenge was the gap oval as it meant the cotton batten kept getting squished to the ‘downwind side’. On the plus side I t does make the planes show up nicely. I could even gone with the camo Rolands. Seeing the pics with the industrial mat I am glad I did the clouds.

Thanks. Might do it again. It would be easier without the 6 AAMG, 2 AAG, 1 target card and 1 train underneath to worry about. Nicely shows off the planes. Next time I might even photo brush out the stands.

It was fun to do but I have to do better on the casualty rolls. The enemy has downed 9 Flik planes killing 4 crew and 3 injured out of the campaign. The Flik has downed 18 enemy planes killing 4 crew, 2 injured out of the campaign and 2 prisoners taken. Mind you that might be because there’s been a lot of 2-seater planes flown by the Flik and downed. We haven’t had enemy 2-seaters since mission 3. That will skew the averages. If I count crewmen shot down it's 14 to 22 since the Flik lost 5 2-seaters and the enemy 1 2-seater and 1 4-crew bomber.

That looked excellent, the cotton wool really looked the part and as already said the planes stand out perfectly against it, even shows your damage effects better. Maybe we should move to the Eastern Front if the pictures are this clear.

That looked excellent, the cotton wool really looked the part and as already said the planes stand out perfectly against it, even shows your damage effects better. Maybe we should move to the Eastern Front if the pictures are this clear.

I had thought of doing one of the missions on the Eastern front, but it's too late now as my timeline has gone past the armistice by one day.